tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-839525549786745818.post7598260044111899041..comments2019-09-14T15:52:40.273+01:00Comments on A Covent Garden Gilflurt's Guide to Life: Jane Austen at School: “I Could Have Died of Laughter”Catherine Curzonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05763562687608837832noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-839525549786745818.post-33648781743614369032015-07-16T20:37:36.833+01:002015-07-16T20:37:36.833+01:00Sounds fabulous! I love Mrs Goddard&#39;s school, ...Sounds fabulous! I love Mrs Goddard&#39;s school, with Miss Nash and the girls peeping through the blinds at Mr Elton :) We can only speculate, but perhaps Mrs Cawley&#39;s school resembled the one Elizabeth Watson was sent to, whereas Madame La Tournelle&#39;s was more like Mrs Goddard&#39;s ...Monica Descalzihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18261853363092968240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-839525549786745818.post-26091605006994394362015-07-15T18:14:24.041+01:002015-07-15T18:14:24.041+01:00I wonder though whether there was a rivalry and sn...I wonder though whether there was a rivalry and snobbery amongst preceptresses... but yes, at least they had more equality. <br />I&#39;m writing a series around a charity school and its staff and pupils, opening in 1809 with &#39;Elinor&#39;s Endowment&#39; so this is a fascinating look inside as you might say... I have to say Mrs Goddard&#39;s school was one of my sources, as well as &#39;The Female Preceptress&#39; and numerous adverts in the newspapers and what they left unsaid. Sarahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03121102757759349165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-839525549786745818.post-22784658245133085352015-07-15T17:41:15.231+01:002015-07-15T17:41:15.231+01:00Interesting point, Sarah. I think Elizabeth sugges...Interesting point, Sarah. I think Elizabeth suggests that not having been sent to school is one of the privileges her sister has enjoyed- we know she’s been brought up “to be rather refined,” and is “used to many of the elegancies of life.” Now they both face the prospect of a teaching career if they don’t get married - Elizabeth knows what it’s like while Emma doesn’t. While pining for home, the elder child might well have thought: “Imagine staying here forever…” Perhaps JA was afraid of that too - I hadn’t thought of it quite that way.<br />Jane Fairfax, on the other hand, “with the fortitude of a devoted novitiate, ... had resolved at one-and-twenty to complete the sacrifice, and retire from all the pleasures of life, of rational intercourse, equal society, peace and hope, to penance and mortification for ever.” That sounds even worse: school teachers at least had each other, while governesses could befriend neither servants, who were considered their inferiors, nor their masters or mistresses, who were much higher up on the social ladder.<br />Monica Descalzihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18261853363092968240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-839525549786745818.post-219774205263365872015-07-15T08:08:20.217+01:002015-07-15T08:08:20.217+01:00forgot to tick the notify me boxforgot to tick the notify me boxSarahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03121102757759349165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-839525549786745818.post-5231576887833949312015-07-15T08:08:02.591+01:002015-07-15T08:08:02.591+01:00Interesting, Monica, that it is the teacher whose ...Interesting, Monica, that it is the teacher whose life is highlighted in that piece as unenviable; I suspect Jane Austen saw the teachers, girls in a similar social position to herself, perhaps, hideously ragged by the better-off pupils. Jane Fairfax on governesses is a similar story; was it something Austen herself feared? having to remain on at the Abbey to teach? <br />I feel for Jane, I was the scholarship girl to a public school [a form of private school in US-speak] and though many of the girls were perfect ladies, it&#39;s true that girls can be little beasts. And I was a day-girl and was able to go home each night...Sarahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03121102757759349165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-839525549786745818.post-21467065411223909712015-07-15T01:18:13.007+01:002015-07-15T01:18:13.007+01:00Lovely piece! This dialogue between Emma Watson an...Lovely piece! This dialogue between Emma Watson and her sister seems to reinforce the idea that school might not have been a happy place:<br /> &quot;I would rather be teacher at a school (and I can think of nothing worse) than marry a man I did not like.&quot;<br />&quot;I would rather do anything than be teacher at a school,&quot; said her sister. &quot; I have been at school, Emma, and know what a life they lead; you never have.&quot;<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> &quot;I would rather do anything than be teacher at a school,&quot; said her sister. &quot; I have been at school, Emma, and know what a life they lead.&quot;<br />Monica Descalzihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18261853363092968240noreply@blogger.com